Opinions

Where a salary increase for an executive office would otherwise create a bar to appointment of a member of Congress under the Ineligibility Clause, compliance with the Clause can be achieved by legislation rolling back the salary of the office before the appointment.

Provisions in the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act of 2009 establishing that six of eleven commissioners of the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission would be members of Congress, appointed by congressional leadership, would raise concerns under the Appointments Clause, the Ineligibility Clause, and the separation of powers.

An undated four-page memorandum from President Lyndon Johnson entitled “Use of the Polygraph in the Executive Branch” and addressed to the heads of Executive Branch departments and agencies, which was neither issued as a directive to the Executive Branch nor understood contemporaneously to have legal effect, does not now bind the Department of Justice or other entities within the Executive Branch.

An intrusion-detection system known as EINSTEIN 2.0 used to protect civilian unclassified networks in the Executive Branch against malicious network activity complies with the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, the Wiretap Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Stored Communications Act, and the pen register and trap and trace provisions of chapter 206 of title 18, United States Code, provided that certain log-on banners or computer-user agreements are consistently adopted, implemented, and enforced by executive departments and agencies using the system.

A regulation proposed by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services providing that “temporary” work under the H-2B visa program “[g]enerally . . . will be limited to one year or less, but . . . could last up to 3 years” is based on a permissible reading of 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(b) and is consistent with the 1987 opinion of this Office addressing the meaning of “temporary” work under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(a).

S. 3501, the OLC Reporting Act of 2008, which would require the Department of Justice to report to Congress on a wide range of confidential legal advice that is protected by constitutional privilege, is unconstitutional.

The bill raises very serious policy concerns because it would undermine the public interest in confidential advice and information sharing that is critical to informed and effective government decisionmaking.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation may issue a national security letter to request, and a provider may disclose, only the four types of information—name, address, length of service, and local and long distance toll billing records—listed in 18 U.S.C. § 2709(b)(1).

The term “local and long distance toll billing records” in section 2709(b)(1) extends to records that could be used to assess a charge for outgoing or incoming calls, whether or not the records are used for that purpose, and whether they are linked to a particular account or kept in aggregate form.

Before issuance of a national security letter, a provider may not tell the FBI whether that provider serves a particular customer or telephone number, unless the FBI is asking only whether the number is assigned, or belongs, to that provider.

The federal lottery statute exemption for lotteries “conducted by a State” requires that the state exercise actual control over all significant business decisions made by the lottery enterprise and retain all but a de minimis share of the equity interest in the profits and losses of the business, as well as the rights to the trademarks and other unique intellectual property or essential assets of the state’s lottery.

It is permissible under the exemption for a state to contract with private firms to provide goods and services necessary to enable the state to conduct its lottery, including management services, as discussed in the opinion.

The Amended and Restated Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements between the United States Department of the Treasury and the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, according to their terms, would create rights enforceable through actions brought in the United States Court of Federal Claims in accordance with the ordinary rules and procedures governing litigation in that Court.